Free Stronghold (Stronghold 1) by Golden Angel Page B

think I made the right ones.  You two
like the same things and I think I've done a good job but I'd like a second
opinion."  Angel raised her eyebrows, Michael sounded almost
hesitant, as if he was nervous about his decisions.   "And I wanted
to surprise her with it so I was hoping you could come over and pack for her
the Friday that we're going to leave, maybe if you have time in between classes
or something."
    "Wow... Michael that's so sweet!"
 She grinned.  Good, this was exactly what Leigh needed from him!
 And he was sounding more like the Michael that she'd first met, less like
the jerk he'd been the weekend before.  "Of course I'll help out!
 And I can definitely come and pack for her on Friday, I don't have any
classes scheduled for Fridays right now.  Usually I spend them sewing, but
I can definitely put that aside for an hour to pack a bag for her."
    "Thank you," he said, sounding
truly relieved.  "I'll email you the link to the B&B along with
the list of activities and spa treatments I picked out so that you can look
that over."
    "That works, do you still have my email
address?"
    "Still angeleyes?"
    "Yep, that's me."
    "Great, thank you so much Angel."
    "Not at all a problem," she said
enthusiastically.  "Anything to help you and Leigh have a great
weekend together."
    "I really appreciate it."
 Something about his tone of voice and the high level of gratitude in it
said that he knew that she wasn't his biggest fan and that he really did
appreciate her putting aside her own judgment of him in order to help him out.
    What he didn't get is that Angel would do
just about anything to make one of her best friends happy.  Especially
Leigh, who was more like a sister to her than she was a friend. 
    ******
    Walking in the front door of the house, Angel
was greeted by pure mayhem.  The main room of the house was always
chaotic, especially in the evenings, because that's where the television,
gaming systems and computers were, but tonight was particularly bad.  Her
roommates Q, Mark and Sam were all pretty insular, but they had a wide group of
friends from World of Warcraft and other online games. 
    Apparently someone had forgotten to tell her
that they'd be having a bit of a convention at the house.  There were
several more computers than usual, along with several more guys in various
states of dress hunkered down around them, barking out orders, insults and
suggestions on their headsets, and chugging Red Bulls.  
    "Oh dear god..." Angel muttered as
she took in the scene.  
    Quickly she looked around for Q, who tended
to take the lead when it came to organizing events - he was also head of the
Guild that the guys were all involved with in the game.  Fortunately he
was also the easiest to find because he was the biggest at about six feet tall,
dark black skin and enough lean muscles that most people looked at him and thought
"jock" rather than "gamer."  His real name was Quinton
but she was the only one who ever called him that, the guys attempted it at
their own peril.
    "Quinton..." she said, standing
with her hands on her hips as she glared around the room at them.
    "Uh oh... Mommy's home," murmured
Sam, not even taking his eyes off the screen.  His real name was Sampson,
but he definitely looked more like a Sam.  Unlike Q, he was basically the
epitome of the gamer stereotype: skinny, geeky white kid with glasses.
 Even though he was twenty five, he was still basically a kid.  He
worked at the Apple store, was constantly bringing home various electronics to
take apart and play with, and was thoroughly convinced that one day (possibly
soon) robots were going to become too intelligent and end up battling humankind
for supremacy.  The worst part was that the longer she talked to him and
the more she learned about technology, the more some of his theories started to
make sense.
    "Uh... hey....SHIT!... Hey Angel."
 Q didn't take his eyes off his computer screen either.
 "Uh..."
    "Did you forget to tell